BIO 250

PLANTS HORMONES AND RESPONSE TO

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SIGNALS

NAME : MUHAMMAD HASIF BIN MOHAMAD

SUZAINI
ID NUMBER : 2011890782
CLASS : AS1204G2
LECTURES NAME : AHMAD ZAIMI BIN MOHD
ZAWAWI

PLANTS HORMONES
In general, plant hormones take control in plant growth and development. Plants cells use
hormones to communicate with one another. Plants hormonesare signaling molecules that can
stimulate or inhibit plant development, including growth. Environmental cues such as the
availability of water,temperature and gravity influence plants by triggering the production and
dispersal of hormones. When a plants hormone binds to a target cell, it may modify gene
expression, solute concentration, enzyme activity or activity another molecule in the cytoplasm.
Some major classes of plant hormones are auxin (IAA), cytokinins, gibberellins, abscisic acid
(ABA) and ethylene.

Auxin (Indoleacetic acid, IAA)

The term auxin is derived from the Greek word, auxein which mean to grow. Therefore, any
chemical substance that have ability and promotes cell elongation can be considered as auxin.
The natural auxin in plants is indoleacetic acid, or IAA. Auxins are plants hormones that promote
or inhibit cell division and elongation, depending on the target tissue.
Auxins that are produced in apical meristems result in elongation of shoots. They also induce cell
division and differentiation in vascular cambium, fruit development in ovaries and lateral root
formation in roots. Auxins also have inhibitory effect. For example, auxins produced in shoot tip
prevents the growth of lateral buds along a lengthening stem, an effect called apical dominance.

Chemical structure of Auxins.

Cytokinins
Generally, cytokinins take control in the cell division and differentiation. Cytokinins are
compounds with a structure resembling adenine which promote cell division and have other
similar functions to kinetin. Kinetin was the first cytokinin discovered and so named because of
the compounds ability to promote cytokinesis (cell division). Cytokinins have been found in
almost all higher plants as well as mosses, fungi, bacteria, and also in tRNA of many prokaryotes
and eukaryotes.
Cytokinins are produced in actively growing tissues, particularly in roots. Cytokinins produced
in the root reach their target tissues by moving up the plant in the xylem sap.
Cytokinins interact with auxins to stimulate cell division and differentiation. In the absence of
cytokinins, a piece of parenchyma tissue grows large, but the cells do not divide. In the presence
of cytokinins and auxins, the cells divide, while cytokinins alone have no effect.
If the ratio of cytokinins and auxins is at a specific level, then the mass of growing cells, called a
callus, remains undifferentiated. If cytokinin levels are raised, shoot buds form from the callus. If
auxin levels are raised, roots form.
Cytokinins, auxins, and other factors interact in the control of apical dominance, the ability of the
terminal bud to suppress the development of axillary buds.
Cytokinins retard the aging of some plant organs. They inhibit protein breakdown by stimulating
RNA and protein synthesis and by mobilizing nutrients from surrounding tissues. Leaves
removed from a plant and dipped in a cytokinin solution stay green much longer than otherwise.

Chemical structure of cytokinins.

Gibberellins (GA)
Growth and other processes of development in all flowering plants, gymnosperms, mosses, ferns,
and some fungi are regulated in part by gibberellins. These hormones induced cell division and
elongation in stem tissue, so they cause stem lengthen between the nodes.
The major sites of gibberellins production is at root and leaves. The effects of gibberellins in
enhancing stem elongation are evident when certain dwarf varieties of plants are treated with
gibberellins.
After treatment with gibberellins, dwarf pea plants grow to normal height. However, if
gibberellins are applied to normal plants, there is often no response, perhaps because these plants
are already producing the optimal dose of the hormone.
The embryo of a seed is a rich source of gibberellins. After hydration of the seed, the release of
gibberellins from the embryo signals the seed to break dormancy and germinate. Gibberellins
support the growth of cereal seedlings by stimulating the synthesis of digestive enzymes that
mobilize stored nutrients.

Chemical structure of gibberellins

Ethylene
Ethylene the only gaseous hormone. It produced by damaged cells in response such as drought,
flooding, injury, and infection. It also produced in autumn in deciduous plants or near the end of
the life cycle as part of a plants normal process of aging.
Ethylenes initiate a seedling to perform a growth called the triple response that enables a
seedling to avoid an obstacle as it grows through soil. In the triple response, stem elongation
slows, the stem thickens, and curvature causes the stem to start growing horizontally. It is
ethylene and not the physical obstruction that induces the stem to grow horizontally. In simple
words, the response of ethylene is mediates fruit ripening.
The uses of ethylene in commercial is allows shipping of green, still-hard fruit. Carbon dioxide
application stops ripening of fruit in transit to market, then ethylene is applied to ripen
distributed fruit quickly.

Chemical structure of ethylene

Abscisic acid (ABA)

Abscisic acid is a hormone that was inhibits growth, and has little to do with abscission. ABA is
part of a stress response that causes stomata to close. It also diverts photosynthetic products from
leaves to seeds, an effect that overrides growth-stimulating effects of other hormones as the
growing season ends. ABA inhibits seed germination in some species, such as apple. Such seeds
do not germinate before most of the ABA they contain has been broken down, for example by a
long periods of cold and wet conditions.
Some cormmercial uses of ABA is induces nursery stock to enter dormancy before shipment to
minimize damage during handling.

Chemical structure of Abscisic acid

Hormones
Auxins

Gibberellins

Abscisis acid

Cytokinins

Ethylene

Primary souce
Stem tip, young
leaves

Effect
Site of effects
Stimulates cell
Growing tissues
elongation
Initiate formation of
Roots
lateral roots
Inhibits growth
Axillary buds
(apical dominance)
Stimulate
Cambium
differentiation of
xylem
Inhibit abscission
Leaves, fruits
Developing embryos
Stimulates fruit
ovary
development
Stem tip, young
Stimulates cell
Stem inertnode
leaves
division,elongation
Embryo
Stimulates
Seed
germination
Embryo (grass)
Stimulates starch
Endosperms
hydrolysis
leaves
Closes stomata
Guard cells
Stimulate formation
Stem tip
of dormant buds
ovule
Inhibits germination
Seed coat
Root tip
Stimulate cell division Stem tip, axillary buds
Inhibit senescence
Leaves
(aging)
Damaged or aged
Inhibits cell
Stem
tissue
elongation
Stimulate senescence
Leaves
(aging)
Stimulate ripening
Fruits
Major plants hormones and some of their effects.

PLANTS RESPONSE TO INTERNAL AND

EXTERNAL SIGNALS
Plants respond to environment stimuli by adjusting the growth of roots and shoots. These
response are called tropisms and they are mediated bythe plants hormones. For example, a root
or shoot bends because of differences in auxin concentration. Auxin that accumulates in cells on
side of a shoot causes the cells to elongate more than the cells on the other side. The results is
that the shoot bends away from the side with more auxin. Auxin has the opposite effect in roots.
It inhibits elongation of root cells. Thus, a root will bend towards the side with more auxin.

Phototropism
Light streaming in from one direction causes stem to curve towards its surce. This response is
called phototropism. In this response, phototropism, orients certain parts of the plants in the
direction that will maximize the amount of light intercepted by its photosynthetic cells.
Phototropism in plants occurs in response to blue light. Nonphotosynthetic pigment called
phototropins absorb blue light and translate its energy into a cascade of intercellular signals. The
ultimate effect of this cascade is that auxin is redistributed to the shaded side elongate of a shoot
or coleoptile. As a result, cell on the shaded side elongate faster than cells on the illuminated
side. Differences in growth rates between cells on opposite sides of a shoot or coleoptiles cause
the entire structure to bend toward the light.

Gravitropism

Sunlight
strike in
only
No matter how aseed is positioned
the soil when it germinates, the radical always grows down,
one
side
and the primary shoot always grows of
up.a Even if a seedling is turned upside down just after
coleoptiles.
germination, the primary root
and shot will curve so the root grows down and the shoot grows

up. A growth response to gravity is called gravitropism.

The plant know which direction up by gravity-sensing mechanismsof
many
organisms are based
Auxin
is transported
on statoliths. In plants, statoliths are starch-grainstuffed amyloplasts
that shaded
occur in side,
root cap cells,
to the
and also in specialized cells at the periphery of vascular tissue in the
stem.it cause cells
where
to lengthen.

Starch grains are heavier than cytoplasm, so statoliths tend to sink to the lowest region of the
cell, wherever that is. When statoliths move, they put tension on actin microfilamens of the cell,s
cytoskeleton. The filaments are connected to the cell,s membrane, and the change in tension is
thought to stimulate certain ion channels in the membranes. The result is that the cell,s auxin
efflux carriers move to the new bottom of the cell within minutes of a change in orientation.
Thus, auxin is always transported to down-facing side of roots and shoots.

Thigmotropism
A plants contact with a solid object may result in a change in the direction of its growth, a
response called thigmotropism. The mechanism that gives rise to the response is not well
understood, but it involves the products of calcium ions and at least five genes called touch.
We can see thigmotropism after a plants tendril touches an object. The cells near the area of
contact stop elongating, and the cells on the opposite sideof the shoot keep elongating. The result
of unequal growth rates of cells on opposite sides of the shoot is cause to curl around the object.
A similar mechanismcauses roots togrow away from contact, which allows them to feel their way
around rock and other impassable objects in the soil.

Phototaxis
Phototaxis is the ability of organisms to move directionally in response to a light source. Many
cyanobacteria exhibit phototaxis, both towards and away from a light source. In the
environment, the ability to move into optimal light conditions for photosynthesis is likely to be
an advantage. We are particularly interested in how cells perceive light of different wavelengths;
the photoreceptors involved and the signal transduction cascade involved in this process.

Chemotaxis
Chemotaxis, movement toward or away from chemicals, is a universal attribute of motile cells
and organisms. The cells swim toward amino acids (serine and aspartic acid), sugars (maltose,
ribose, galactose, glucose), dipeptides, pyrimidines and electron acceptors (oxygen, nitrate,
fumarate). Figure 1 shows two simple methods for assessing attractant responses. The capillary
assay relies on diffusion-generated gradients and is more quantitative, but also more laborious.
Soft agar assays involve metabolism-generated chemoeffector gradients and provide a more
qualitative, but expedient, measure of chemotactic ability. Cell also swims away from potentially
noxious chemicals, such as alcohols and fatty acids, but repellent responses haven't been as
extensively studied.

Figure 1: The test chemical diffuses from the capillary mouth, establishing a steep gradient that
attracts bacteria to the entrance. The cells enter the capillary and are subsequently documented
by colony counts.

Refrences

The unity and Diversity of life, 12th edition.

Campbell Biology, 9th edition.
http://chemotaxis.biology.utah.edu/Parkinson_Lab/projects/ecolichemotaxis/ecolichemot
axis.html
http://dpb.carnegiescience.edu/labs/bhaya-lab/projects/phototaxis
http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/8-2-1-gravitropism
http://dpb.carnegiescience.edu/article/lighting-plant-hormone-%E2%80%9Ccommandsystem%E2%80%9D